Christmas 2015

Christmas celebrations began on Wednesday at my Mother-in-law's house! Christmas Eve morning, we all went for a run in the foggy 70 degree heat. Ohhh Louisiana. That afternoon, we ate gumbo and opened gifts. We also cranked the a/c down and just pretended it was cold outside! 

The boys built a gingerbread house with our niece! She supervised and taste-tested. 

Christmas Eve night, my Dad's side of the family had our annual fish fry! 

We all enjoyed time with the newest addition to our family, who is less than 7 weeks old.

Kaleigh Grace read the Christmas story from Luke. 

Then we played a few games and did our gift exchange for each name we drew. 

Christmas Day, we had our traditional omelet and biscuits with peppermint hot chocolate at Mom's house. Then the kids plays with their toys all day! 

Colton and Billie set up Colton's train, and the girls made homemade cards with their American Girl craft set.

The day after Christmas, we drove down to Pineville for a Mexican tacky sweater themed Christmas with Mom's family! We ate fajitas, taco soup, queso, chips and salsa, and drank sangria! 

And we got to love on another new addition! 

I think my emotions have covered the full spectrum these past few days. To be honest, parts of me have just wanted to "get through" these couple weeks. But I've felt a lot of grace, from myself and my family, for feeling like an emotional mess at times. Life can be hard and messy. But I really believe that God is always good and wants to be the source for what we need each moment. I'm asking Him to show me to how to rely more and more on Him. 

Coworker Christmas Party

My coworkers came over on Tuesday night for a Christmas party and dirty Santa gift exchange! 

I made caramel popcorn, white chocolate peppermint Oreos, peanut butter fudge, graham cracker toffee, Rolo cookies, molasses cookies, and pretzel turtle cookies. Everyone else brought sausage balls, guacamole, buffalo chicken dip, beer bread, pizza bread, cupcake, wings, and more! 

We had a great time and lots of laughs with the gift exchange! 

Christmas Cheer Party and Parade

Our friends hosted a Christmas Cheer party on Saturday. We met at their house downtown for appetizers and drinks, then walked to the downtown Christmas parade. After the parade, we returned for a massive cookie exchange. My friend Niva gets photo cred for some of these shots! 

My contribution, peanut butter cup cookies. 

We had gingerbread cookies, peanut butter chocolate fudge bars, shortbread cookies, peanut butter cookies, and toffee! 

 

Our awesome hosts! 

Christmas in Louisiana

As evidenced by my delay in posting, we have had a pretty busy week since we returned from Louisiana on Sunday. It was so nice to spend 5 days at home!

It started with baking Christmas goodies with my Mom and sister...

snowball cookies, Reese's cookies, and my caramel pecan pie bars

Hubs and brother-in-law making sausage balls

Sister's gorgeous house

Every Christmas Eve that I can remember, my Dad's side of the family has had a fish fry. I love that we've kept the tradition all these years!

Isn't my family beautiful?? This picture makes me teary. Talk about legacy...

Fried fish, potato salad, beans, and hush puppies around a farm table. Don't get much mo' better. :)

I'm bummed about my lack of photos from Christmas Day. I was enjoying myself too much to think about snapping pictures! We had an awesome brunch at my parent's house (our tradition: peppermint hot chocolate, omelet, and biscuits) followed by gifts and family time in our PJs.

The day after Christmas we spent with Billie's family. We ate good food (I could eat brie cheese forever and ever, amen), opened gifts, and laughed at Key and Peele videos on Youtube.

That night, Billie and I met his closest friends (all high school friends and groomsmen in our wedding) and their sweet wives for dinner. Afterwards, we spent time at one couple's house just talking and laughing. I stayed up til 2am, which should tell you how much fun I was having. If I make it past  9pm, it's gotta be good. :)

Saturday, we drove down to Pineville to have Christmas with my Mom's side of the family. Louisiana gumbo, appetizers, and desserts galore! Here are a couple of my cousins. Again, isn't my family good looking?? 

My niece wanted to take a selfie.

Time for presents

Hope you had a great Christmas and New Year's. I read a quote this morning that I wanted to share...

"Today is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a great one!"

Christmas Parties

Billie and I have had a fun holiday season, full of parties! I enjoyed myself so much at the first few, that I forgot to take ANY pictures.

Thankful that my friend Nicole captured these pics from our ugly sweater work party at a local favorite Mexican restaurant. She coined this our "Merry Christmex" party.

My Charlie Brown tree in my work office!